Excalibur: Sword of Destiny
by NiniriAZ
Summary: What IF? It's a question that Marvel's asked in the past, "what if" events had happened differently: What IF Elisabeth "Psylocke" Braddock was the true sovereign of Otherworld, destined to wield Excalibur, and the Amulet of Right? She has always been her
1. Default Chapter

Brian Braddock huddled within the dome of his light-house home as lightening arced  
  
across a dark and angry sky, the rocky outcropping upon which his "tower" sat battered  
  
by relentless waves as he tried to block out the voices….  
  
Voices of the lost… voices of those damned by their calling….  
  
His former peers, the august body called the Captain Britain Corps…defenders of the   
  
Isles and all that Camelot had ever stood for haunted him as relentlessly as the waves  
  
that battered the coast of Britain.  
  
Why, Brian??  
  
Dozens of hands reached for him, as though they would pull him beneath the waves  
  
as well, and the voices kept calling to him….  
  
Why did you forsake us?  
  
The faces of every Captain Britain he'd ever met focused into view… variations of himself, or his sister, Liz, or even their late, unlamented brother, Jamie….  
  
There were no answers, and there seemed to be no escaping the more insistent interrogative: WHY?  
  
He tried to run, but there were too many of them, too many voices….  
  
…was this how Liz felt when her telepathy had first come upon her?  
  
He awoke with a scream… his voice echoing through out the halls of Braddock  
  
Manor….  
  
He awoke as he tumbled out of bed, clocking his aching head on the floor, his fey  
  
bride, Meggan hovering over him, with a great deal of concern in her leaf-green   
  
eyes, "Brian?! What is it?"  
  
"no…no more…" he whispered, rubbing the aching lump on his head, ignoring her  
  
as he tried to get his bearings.  
  
"What's wrong, luv?" she asked again as her slender form grew stronger, altering  
  
as she lifted him back up onto the bed, "Ye've had another one of yer nightmares,  
  
haven't ye?"  
  
Brian shook his head, shrugging off her ministering hands, "Bloody hell, Meg, It's..  
  
it's.. just a bloody dream…."  
  
Meggan raised her voice, something the empathic metamorph rarely did, but right  
  
now, she knew she was right, "Sod it, Brian! Dreams don't wake ye, screaming in  
  
the middle of the night! And certainly not for months at a time!"  
  
Brian didn't answer her as he mustered enough strength to get off the bed and stagger  
  
into the bathroom… He needed a drink. It was just a nightcap… just enough so that  
  
he could sleep…  
  
Meggan knocked on the door, calling through it, hoping he'd hear her, "I'm yer wife,  
  
darling…. If something's wrong, ye can tell me!"  
  
She heard the lock click just before the water started running in the shower…..  
  
The fey changeling slipped downstairs, finding the phone by it's peculiar plasticy smell,  
  
and dialed the international operator, hearing a man's voice after several seconds of   
  
delay, "United States Operator, how may I connect your call?"  
  
Back in the bathroom in the master suite, Brian sat under the cold spray of the shower,   
  
swigging Scotch from a silver flask he'd hidden in there some time back… concealed  
  
where his nagging, clingy wife couldn't find it… It's firey, distinctive taste was a far better  
  
lover… it soothed the visions and chased away the nightmares so that he could sleep.  
  
He toweled himself off and concealed the now empty flask, vowing to refill it later, when  
  
she was otherwise occupied…  
  
He brushed his teeth, and took a swig of mouthrinse to chase away the telltale signs of  
  
his drinking. Splashing cold water on his face to help wake himself up, and then he looked into the mirror…  
  
That was Mistake Number One, he thought as he stood transfixed by the vision, of forests and castles aflame, and the flickering form of Roma, wearing a strange ruby  
  
medallion around her neck… her eyes glowed an uncharacteristic crimson shade, and  
  
when he stopped to rub his eyes, he looked back…and it was gone.  
  
He saw the stupefied expression on his own face leering back at him as he retrieved  
  
his towel, and finished getting ready to head into the labs for another long day's work.  
  
"bloody hell…." he muttered as he left the bathroom and headed for his dressing room  
  
to find some clothes… he never saw the menacing form that leaned out of the mirror  
  
watching him leave… 


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter One  
  
Darkmoor Research Labs.  
  
It's a place that holds mixed memories for Brian Braddock … it was here that he first worked after graduating with his Master's in Physics and Engineering, and where he'd  
  
studied and polished his thesis for his doctorate.  
  
It was also the last place he'd been on that fateful night that had lead to his taking up the mantle of Captain Britain of Earth 616…  
  
But now, he and his wife, the fey changeling, Meggan, worked here, testing the limits of  
  
not only her own powers, but of his own theories about the physics of alternate dimensions…such as Otherworld.  
  
An unearthly emerald glow was visible through the plasteel dome that house an energy emitter… Meggan's voice rang over the headsets of the scientists as she monitored the  
  
array with her mystical and enhanced senses, "All right, gentlebeings, let's take it from  
  
the top…."  
  
"Thermodynamic levels increasing exponentially…" one of the scientists called out, taking a reading from her console, and another seconded her announcement, "Ambient  
  
waveforms are fluctuating rapidly…"  
  
Meggan looked at the swirling mass of verdant energies with all the senses she had at  
  
her disposal, including her empathic ability to "feel" things beyond emotions.. she hovered above everyone's heads, watching in wonder, "Projecting critical paranormal  
  
mass in T-minus 10…..9….8….7….."  
  
Brian Braddock manned the controls of the emitter array, his eyes protected by goggles,  
  
and his headset tuned to share communications with the rest of the crew…   
  
"Steady there, ol' boy… steady!!" he called out as Meggan's voice continued to call out  
  
the count down, "7….6….5….4….3….2…..1…."  
  
"Righto!" Brian hollered, with a note of triumph in his voice, "That's it…. Riiiiight…."  
  
"Deactivate!" he ordered as the matrix energies disappated, to reveal the armoured  
  
form of Dane Whitman, the Black Knight, one of his oldest and best friends.  
  
The master swordsman was also a fellow researcher, though his expertise lay in biology and genetics, and he was also a reserve member of the Avengers, with as long and august a history of heroism as Brian's had been.  
  
He was now able to see the forms of a group of the thinktank's best and brightest as they scurried around, gathering data, and monitoring the computers…  
  
"Deactivating spectranalisys now…." one of them echoed Brian's order, as the computer's placid tone interrupted, Results tabulating….prediction imminent.  
  
"Admit it, man—" he taunted his friend good naturedly, "…you rather fancy yourself the mad scientist these days, don't you, Braddock?"  
  
Dane stepped out of the residual matrix-glow and down from the platform, his strange   
  
black two-handed bastard sword none the worse for wear, though he appeared a bit winded from the efforts as Meggan steadied his descent from the platform.  
  
Brian chuckled, removing his goggles, "There is something appealing about torturing one's friends in the name of science, I must confess… You especially, Whitman. Nice to see the Black Knight is as much of a pantywaist as ever…. It's a wonder the Avengers ever let you into their ranks!"  
  
"Keep talking that trash, Braddock, and—ex-partner or not—you'll be eating those words with a side of chips, once the effects of all your bloody experiments have worn off…" the descendant of the Black Knight of Arthurian legend shot back, his own formidable constitution affording him a speedy recovery as he allowed Brian to run a tricorder along  
  
the blade's edge, "Now, why exactly did you drag me all the way across the Pond? Certainly not just to test the mystical properties of the Ebony Blades…"  
  
Brian feigned a hurt look, "What? Can't I catch up with an old friend I've not seen in a bloody dog's age? I'm not a total recluse y'know!"  
  
"Braddock, y'make Howard Hughes look like an extrovert!" Dane shot back as his chum completed his scan of the elegantly lethal blade, giving Brian an odd look.  
  
The former Captain Britain swallowed hard, "Well, yes… it's all rather hard to explain..  
  
without sounding like a raving lunatic!"  
  
A strangely familiar voice rang over his shoulder as he donned a glove to test the heft of the ancient blade, "Like we Braddocks are any strangers t'lunacy…."  
  
Brian wheeled around, thrusting the sword back into Whitman's hands as he saw the glowing sigil of the Crimson Dawn lurking in the shadows, followed by the armor-clad   
  
form of his sister emerging from the liquid blackness, her dark violet hair and vaguely  
  
Oriental features still unfamiliar to him as the mark on her face.  
  
"Liz?" he stammered, more surprised by how she arrived than the fact that she had, "Crikey, sis, what are you doing here?"  
  
Meggan smiled reassuringly at her sister-in-law, who had just arrived from the States,  
  
she was relieved that the telepath was here…  
  
The regal warrior regarded her brother suspiciously for a moment before moving to embrace him as he stood gaping at her, "You could sense my thoughts all the way across the Pond? I didn't realise your telepathy was so far reaching!"  
  
"It wasn't… until I had an accident…" she told him as he finally hugged her back.  
  
"But then…how did you--?" he sputtered, unsure of what to make of things as they  
  
were, especially since the link they once shared had been severed back when she'd  
  
been body swapped into the form of an Oriental assassin.  
  
"Oh, y'know, that secret language of twins thing," she jested before she gestured over to Meggan, "Actually, a little faerie told me…"  
  
Meggan cowered behind Liz's formidable form, her voice timid, and her features becoming more plain as she sought to divert another explosion of her husband's temper,  
  
"I rang yesterday and told her about yer nightmares… I was so scared.. Please don't be cross with me?"  
  
Dane laid a restraining hand on his old friend's shoulder as the former superhero wheeled around to glare at his empathic wife, "Meggan. Darling. I'm telling you… I'm fine!"  
  
Liz met his glare with her own intimidating violet gaze, "No, you're not, Brian. Something is bothering you, I can sense it…"  
  
"Not that secret twins rubbish…?" he muttered as he wanted to crawl away from his sister's powerful presence, though the shadowy warrior-telepath didn't let him off so easily, "Brian, luv, I know you better than anyone… "  
  
He turned away from her, resting his weary weight on the railing of the Lab's balcony, his voice barely audible, "Aye, that you do, bets… that you do…"  
  
He turned back to them, his face in a stubborn set, "Do we really have to talk about this?"  
  
Liz nodded sternly, "Yes, we do."  
  
Dane nodded, clapping him on the shoulder, "Whatever it is, you obviously need to get it off your chest, Braddock. Trust me, you'll feel a lot better once you do…"  
  
Liz's penetrating gaze still bored into him as she reached into the shadows beside Meggan and withdrew a sword composed of pure darkness, as unreflective and light absorbing as the Black Knight's own mystical blade, "And you'll feel a lot worse if you force me to use this…. Just because I am not going mucking around in your head doesn't mean that this is any less effective!"  
  
Brian grumbled as his sister called his bluff and forced him into a corner, "Well, when you put it that way…"  
  
He gestured to his office in a corner of the labs, and the trio followed him in, taking up   
  
various seats, with Meggan hovering in a corner. as her irascible husband leaned on his desk with a heavy sigh, "Ever wonder who you are? Wonder why you were brought into the world? Or what your true calling is? Or even what purpose you serve?"  
  
He removed his glasses, revealing his bloodshot eyes as he turned to his wife, sister and best friend, "Those are precisely the questions I've been trying to answer since that fateful night when I first became Captain Britain…"  
  
"It all started here, at Darkmoor, when I was just a Thames University grad student with more smarts than stones." he continued, the memories still haunting him, "We were attacked by Joshua Stragg, a psychotic called 'The Reaver', hellbent on stealing our top secret research for his own insidious affairs….it was mayhem, I panicked and fled… Dad's old Triumph motorbike was swift, but I wasn't half the rider he, Jamie or Liz were. The crash should have killed me, I wished it had…. I was lying near death, and thought I'd gone mad, that the spirits of the land, Merlyn and his daughter, Roma, who appeared to me were the tortured elusions of a dying mind, and not the truly the beings that they are…. If only…. They made me face destiny.—they made me become a hero. I fought alongside some of the worlds greatest heroes, and stared down death facing some of the most sinister villains…and all that time, running around with the fate of the world in my hands, I thought I could handle the responsibility…."  
  
His bleak expression told them as much as his next word cost him, "I was wrong… My body was strong, nigh invulnerable, but my mind was weak, my spirit never as strong as   
  
my father's…or my sister's. I became suicidal."  
  
"Thanks to some much needed support and guidance from the Black Knight," he continued, "I was able to resume the mantle I'd been handed with some renewed sense of purpose and fresh perspective… And we fought the good fight for Otherworld and for the Isles. Through Merlyn's tutelage, I learned of my father's extra-dimensional, non-human, origins…and about the metaphysical connection to the land and the people of Otherworld—and for a time, I achieved a sense of spiritual peace that most beings never experience in their lifetimes… but it didn't last very long. My services were needed elsewhere, and I was given an new image, better suited to the challenges that lay ahead…and I gained an "invisible friend"..something most children abandon with childhood… Jackdaw guided me in saving another Britain, another world, from the madness of Sir James Jaspers and his vision of holocaust against any and all metahumans in the Isles."  
  
"We failed and we died," Brian whispered, thinking of the techno-organic horror of the Fury, "But even in death, there was no escaping destiny…. Merlyn brought me back, once more, for there were greater evils to be fought, for in that interim, my own sister had taken up the mantle of Captain Britain…and I was jealous of her success…and it was I who should have faced the Slaymaster and the Vixen, not you, Liz…"  
  
"I was busy facing Sat-yr-9 on another sidereal Earth, while you were fending off my psychotic doppleganger, Byron Bhra-dok, her lover…" he continued, thinking of all those things that had happened, from his misadventures with Gatecrasher and the Technet, to his sticky cooperation with Inspector Dai Thomas of Scotland Yard, to the Warpies and the Weird Happenings Organisation's involvement with Excalibur… friends long dead but  
  
not forgotten… "There were lives to change, alliances to forge, and traditions to uphold… For the first time in my life, everything seemed to be going according to what ever bizarre design fate had mapped out for me… I lost my sister, not once in Dallas, but twice, if you count the Seige Perilous…"  
  
"Excalibur danced through time, and I saw other lives, that might have been mine… happiness still eluded me," Brian continued, "until a confounding jaunt into an alternate future awakened me to yet another alternate reality beyond any one man's hope of salvation…"  
  
"If not for Rachel Grey, the Phoenix," he said trying to steady his voice, "who plucked me from the timestream, exchanging her existence for mine, I would have been trapped there forever…"  
  
"I adopted the name "Britanic" and renewed my persuits of science and engineering, hoping to find some focus, and rebuild my life here, on Earth 616… but then Liz's accident brought me to the attention of the Dragons of the Crimson Dawn, proving that my attempts to define myself as I saw fit were but a temporary respite from the chaos…"  
  
"To save the world from their ancient evil, and to save my sister from Kuragari, Captain Britain had to die once more.. leaving only the man, Brian Braddock, to try to pick up the pieces and carry on," he said quietly, "And I thought that marriage to Meggan would be the best thing that ever happened to me… I was wrong about that too…"  
  
Meggan sniffled in the corner, knowing she was hearing the truth…while Liz was not so devastated, she knew that Brian's life as a hero had taken its toll on his sanity, which even he was beginning to question….   
  
"So… here I am, right back at the beginning, doing what I've always loved most….my research," he admitted, "Still, I've this nagging suspicion that It's all about to start again.  
  
Like at any given moment, when I least want or expect it, that other shoe's going to come crashing…."  
  
"….down?" he finished as the sound of braking glass and explosions interrupted his soliloquy as the door was blown off its hinges before anyone could seek cover… Meggan, Liz and Dane were all attired in armor, and unhurt by the shrapnel, but Brian wasn't, he was "merely human" and without his former invulnerability to protect him, it was his nearly-estranged wife who shifted her form and mass to act as a shield for his more frail form…  
  
When the dust cleared, they saw the battered form of Linda McQuillan, Captain UK, lying beneath the rubble, a group of cyberneticly enhnased individuals landing in the ruins of Darkmoor Labs.   
  
A harsh mechanical voice rang out, Captain UK of Earth 839. Status: Terminated.  
  
The form of Widget materialized overhead, static electricity arcing around her, Captain Britain of Earth 616. Designate: Terminal Status: Immediate.  
  
Dane's eyes narrowed underneath his helmet, as he drew the Ebony Blade and summoned his shield, "Not if I have anything to say about it! For Avalon!"  
  
His blade swung through the partially immaterial form that hung below the metallic unit, causing some sort of disruption, though the cyborg shimmered and drew in current from the damaged structure to stabilize itself…  
  
We come for Braddock. We will not be denied. Widget repeated as the group of cyborgs began to mobalise against the quartet, one knocking Whitman from his feet  
  
as Meggan flew out of range of the others and Liz melted into the shadows..   
  
Brian attempted to flee the scene….  
  
The former Avenger was irrepressible, "Whoever sent you, is going to be sorely disappointed… the only one –hunnnrrr- going home headless is you, robot!"  
  
The Black Knight used the leverage of being so low to the ground to his advantage, throwing two of his assailants into another and swiftly turning to parry the energy-mace of a third as Meggan play catch-me-if-you-can with two of the fliers, shifting her form to  
  
augment her strength and invulnerability by adding raw muscle mass….  
  
Widget's observations weren't lost on the warrior-telepath, Your birth-world lays dying, Daughter of Braddock. Soon the entire universe shall be remade as it should be….  
  
Liz dodged the blows of one of the more massive constructs with supernatural ease, using her martial arts prowess, blended with her shadow-melting powers to confound Widget and her fellow cyborgs' ability to track her as she suddenly dropped out of what remained of the ceiling's darkened surface, a blade of solid shadows aimed point downward….  
  
"Get your facts straight, I was born here, in England," she snapped, "and you're talking to a former "superhero"!! I hear such idle boasts from bloody idiots far more threatening than the likes of you lot on a regular basis… And I am not impressed, cyborg!"  
  
Her shadowy blade impaled the cybernetic being's CPU shell, housed within Widget's head, disrupting the energies with the alien magic of the Crimson Dawn….  
  
The ensuing explosion threw her back onto the rubble, but Liz relaxed, allowing her armor to absorb the brunt of the impact as dissonant voices emerged from its speakers,  
  
You struggle in vain, Daughter of Braddock! You are the past. We are the future… The future…is NOW!]  
  
The static coils emerging from the disrupted Widget crackled over the remainder of the cyborgs as they winked out of existence, leaving the smell of ozone and electrical fires in their wake…. 


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter Two  
  
Liz scrambled to her feet, Meggan hovering around her like a shadow as the warrior used the shadows to "melt" the rubble away from her former partner, Captain UK.  
  
"Blessed Lady, Liz," Meggan whispered, "Look what they've done to her… Please tell me she's still alive!"  
  
She telepathicly scanned Linda McQuillan, with care, examining her for the severity of her injuries, carefully removing the other woman's helmet, [Yes… she's alive, but barely conscious. She took a hell of a beating… but I know just how tough she really is… Going to see if I can help her come around!]  
  
Captain UK coughed as Meggan and Liz helped her sit up, "unnnhhh…. wh-where am I? who….?"  
  
Liz spoke softly, "Easy, luv. It's Liz, and you're on Earth 616.. . You're safe now…"  
  
Linda shook her head, struggling to move, "NO! Not safe! None of us are…."  
  
"From what?" Meggan asked, sensing the rising terror in one of her former maids of honour, "What could scare you that badly?"  
  
Liz was better able to put it in perspective as she was still mindlinked with Linda, realizing the source as the other woman became more lucid, "Not "what", but rather "who"…"  
  
"The Majestrix," Linda began explaining, "A fortnight ago, hoards of strange creatures descended upon the realm of Otherworld, like locusts almost….  
  
although their origins remain a mystery, their evil intent was clear…"  
  
"From the furtherest reaches of the multiverse, the Captain Britain corps rallied to repel these invaders, but even our greatest heroes proved no match for those monsters…or the insanity of the one who summoned them!"  
  
Liz looked from Brian to Meggan and then to Dane, "Majestrix Roma? The patroness of the Corps? As in Merlyn's-daughter-who-was-nothing-like-her-scheming-power-mad-father-Roma?"  
  
Brian's eyes were as wide as saucers as his psychic sister confirmed Linda's story, showing them the events from Captain UK's point of view. Meggan was repulsed, as any extremely sensitive psychic would have been, Brian leaned over the railing and lost both breakfast and lunch, while Dane and Liz steeled themselves, both having seen wholesale carnage in their careers as adventurers.  
  
It wasn't pleasant, but it was the truth….  
  
When he recovered enough dignity, Brian protested, "That's impossible!"  
  
Linda's healing factor was kicking in, repairing the damage as she straightened up to look him in the eye, "Tell that to the dead, Braddock. So many of our brothers and sisters have already sacrificed themselves to stop her madness, only a scattered few of us remain… Otherworld needs us!"  
  
But it wasn't Brian she was looking at, but rather his sister, "Otherworld needs Captain Britain…"  
  
Brian was too absorbed in overanalyzing what he'd just seen, and between that, and his wife's distractions, he missed the telepathic exchange between his sister and Captain UK.  
  
"The corps decimated?" he muttered to himself, "Otherworld in flames? Just like my nightmares… But why? What could have possibly possessed Roma? Unless this is another of Merlyn's sick, twisted mindgames…?"  
  
Meggan flittered around him like a worrisome mother hen, drawing her own conclusions, "Of course! That must be it! She's trying to trick you.. Merlyn did it before, so they must be doing it again!"  
  
Brian shook his head, trying to bat her away, "There's only one way to find out…."  
  
Meggan blinked, not quite grasping what he had in mind, "But, Brian.. without yer powers? How can ye possibly stop someone who's practically a goddess?"  
  
"I dunno, Meg," he muttered, as his wife clung to him, not notising the sour look as he though of his lack of powers and her plethora of them, "I have to find out…"  
  
"I'm coming with you…" she announced as Liz's determined mindvoice rang in their minds, [We all are. Though I've lived most of my life on Earth, Otherworld's in my blood and soul, too. Besides, what better chance to spend some "quality" family time with my brother and sister-in-law—than while saving another universe?]  
  
Linda tried not to chuckle, "Alrighty, then it's settled… Grab your gear…."  
  
Dane gave Brian a bemused look as his former partner donned his old Captain Britain outfit, which would at least give him some protection, "And how exactly do you plan on beaming us up there, Scotty? Otherworld's an entirely different dimension all its own!"  
  
"One of the benefits of being head researcher at Darkmoor is having total access to the most bleeding edge interdimensional technology available on Earth…" Brian replied, looking rather smug, "I've got toys that would make Reed Richards drool…. All I have to do is analyze the residue from Widget's teleportation signature, replicate it into a new matrix, cross-referencing all possible dimensional points… and I should be able to generate a dedicated wormhole that bypasses Otherworld's mystical barriers… forcing them to interface with this particular terrestrial plane of existence…."  
  
Liz rolled her eyes, pushing a strand of amethyst hair our of her eyes, "My brother could not be a bigger geek…."  
  
Her brother looked over his shoulder, "When all of you arrive with all of your internal organs still on the inside, you'll be thanking me…"  
  
She chuckled, "Really?"  
  
"Now, stand back, you lot," he announced, puffing out his chest, "This is about to get tricky…"  
  
Meggan's eyes grew wider, "Look! It's working!"  
  
The verdant column of inert plasma began to spin off arcs of lightening as it brightened momentarily and then winked out of existence….  
  
"Bbbbububutt…" Brian mumbled as he rechecked the settings, the screen flickering several times before it, too, winked off…."Bloody HELL!"  
  
He pulled back a fist to punch the damaged systems, but when his fist impacted, it sank into its own shadow, as his sister's mocking chuckle reached his ears, "Didn't count on the power going out, did you, little brother?"  
  
She looked at the other three, "Take a deep breath, make like you're swimming,  
  
because the next stop is Otherworld…"  
  
And then she plunged them into the liquid darkness that was the Crimson Dawn…. 


	4. Chapter 4

The Otherworld:   
  
The towering Amerind looked around himself, the bleak landscape testament to the destruction wrought herein. The bodies of fallen comrades littering the snowy ground whilst the sky burned with magefire.  
  
He struck out at his foes, those strange techno-magickal constructs...the Ghost Staff grievious damage upon them, their electronic static akin to screams of agony as he waded into yet another phalynx...  
  
Crusader X...aka Bran "Wakenshasa" Twoyoungmen Braddock, Marquess of Lyonesse: Shaman, mystic warrior, premier defender of the British Empire.  
  
Talisman...aka Lady Branwynne "Nashota" Twoyoungmen-Braddock, sorceress, psychic, mystic and Bran's twin sister. A warrior in her own right, firing arrows of psychic energy into their foes from her ariel vantage point...one of a mere handful remaining on the battlefield.  
  
Slowly, they made headway against the seemingly endless hoards of daemons, standing their ground. There was no mercy for their foes, who had shown none for their fallen fellows of the Captain Britain Corps... only grim resolve to end this, or die trying.  
  
Bran's mystical senses registered something above him as psycho-warriors with some form of ariel adaption swooped down upon him, determined to carry him off....a brilliant lance of his sisters power striking the two wingmen that covered his abductor whilst he struggled most valiantly against the creature that sought to crush his skull.  
  
Below him eldritch tentacles swarmed upward, seeking the tasty treat his very essence would bring them, something impacting the drone he struggled with, leaving him in free fall mode as he struggled to regain his bearings, "Bugger me!"  
  
A familiar voice greeted him as Linda MacQuillan swooped down, catching the disoriented shaman, "Sorry, luv, I know they're hungry for your mystical blood...but you're off today's menu!!"  
  
"Captain UK..." he exclaimed in relief, momentarily going lax in her embrace as she carried him clear of the destruction, Talisman and the other survivors following her lead, "Yer certainly a sight fer sore eyes, MacQuillan! Didn't think ye were goign t'make it back!"  
  
As she set him down on a block of rubble in a ravaged section of the Hub, Otherplace, they coughed, smoke stinging their eyes, burning their throats, Linda filled him in, "All things considered, I almost didn't, Bran...it was touch and go there for a bit. A pack of these cheeky buggers tracked me to Earth 616. Would've been the end of me if I'd not had a little help from some chums.."  
  
He looked up into her sky-blue eyes as she checked him over for wounds, pushing his damp black hair out of his lavender eyes, using a fairly scrap of cloth from the ruins to mop Bran's soot-smudged coppery skin, his voice gravelly and hoarse from battle cries and spellcasting, "So...yer mission was a success?"  
  
"Quite..." Linda assured him with a wry smile, the shadows deepening around them in a manner that set his mystical senses a-jingle with every nerve suddenly awakening as a mild seizure rippled over his raw Mage-gift...  
  
...and out of the darkness staggered Brian Braddock, the former Captain Britain of Earth 616, his wife, the empathic elemental called Meggan, the Black Knight and last, and certainly not least, the shadowy form of Brian's twin sister, Liz, whose face he barely recognised due to the cosmetic changes that'd given her beauty an Eurasian flavour, a sullen crimson glyph marring her otherwise flawless features as the eldritch darkenss slicked off her tall figure.  
  
He groaned inwardly, his hopes fading as he looked at the four warriors, "Well, well, well, if it isn't 616...."  
  
Brian glowerd at his half-Amerind counterpart, whom he'd met during the "Cross-time" adventures he and Excalibur had been caught up on several years prior, "Crusader X..."  
  
"...this the best ye could do, Linda?" Bran asked Captain UK as he pulled himself to his feet, shaking off the unease that Liz's mystical presence gave him, as the ivory-maned powerhouse shrugged in resignation.  
  
"On such short notice...." she grumbled, throwing her hands up in mock-defeat, as if to say "take it or leave it".  
  
"Appreciate the vote of confidence," Liz interjected, a wry smile on her ruby lips, the sigil of the Crimson Dawn flaring brightly, in the unnatural twilight that had obscured the Otherworld for weeks, "Cheers, mates...we're here..."  
  
Brian shook off the disorientation of his sister's unique means of transportation, "I oughta warn you lot: things have changed drastically... I'm just plain ol' Brian Braddock now... I don't have the powers that made me Captain Britain any more..."  
  
Linda shook her head, as this was not a good turn of events... "It's not the powers that make the hero, Brian, it's the person..."  
  
Liz saw to Meggan, whose own psi-talents and senses were still reeling from the trip through what had been total sensory deprivation for those unprepared, steadying the little Fey with both mind and body, asking her own questions as she took in the ruins around them, "Bran... what happened t'the rest of the Corps? Centurian Britannicus and Lady Londonium? Enforcer Capone...Captain Alboin and even Chevalier Bretange?"  
  
Bran looked at the woman who'd briefly taken Brian's place before one of his foes had sorely wounded her...taking the measure of the woman, he was surprised and impressed with the changes she'd undergone...she was most certainly her father's daughter...  
  
He joined her in assisting Meggan's recovery, drawing a healing elixir from his medicine pouch, "All dead, as near as I can tell, Liz... Linda, Talisman and I are among the few left t'battle the madness that Roma's unleashed upon the Otherworld..."  
  
Brian sat down, pale and shakey as the reality sunk in, pulling out his silver flask and taking a swig of the amber courage, his voice a bare whisper, "...just...just like those nightmares...I've never been precognitive before...it was always Liz who's psychic..."  
  
Linda shook her head, a frisson slithering through her soul as she realized that Brian had fallen off the wagon, returning to the bottle for comfort, "All of us share a psychic connection to the Otherworld, it's pain is our pain...that's what's been causing your visions...any of us who are of the Blood have felt it."  
  
Meggan shivered as her metamorphic nature struggled to cope with the horrors dealt to the land and its peoples, fighting the blight that threatened to make her wretch with illness, her voice a bare whisper, "...but...but this horror...is so completely unlike Roma...why would she do this... What could she want?"  
  
Bran sighed wearily, as he feared he knew the answer already... "The Sword of Might, fair one...one of the Spoils of Annwyn created by her father, Merlyn. The other being the Amulet of Right. Collectively, the power of the Spoils could sunder the Omniverse..."  
  
Brian looked confused, none of this making sense to him, "When I first became Captain Britain, Merlyn and Roma offered me both the sword and the amulet... I chose the latter as it seemed the wiser at the time..."  
  
Talisman nodded as she joined them, "Aye...it was. Only the true monarch of the Otherworld may wield the Spoils without jepardizing all that is... In her seeming insanity, Roma has come to believe herself that sovereign..."  
  
Liz's gaze met those of her allies and friends, "But didn't Merlyn incorporate the amulet int'Brian's new costume the second time he resurrected him? Y'know, t'supposedly amplify his physical powers?"  
  
Brian watched, listening to all of this in disbelief...he was still a man of science, dipped in magic that he couldn't quite fathom, wondering how Dane and Liz made sense out of all the hocus pocus, but Bran interrupted his confusion with more of his supposed shamanic wisdom...  
  
"And when yer brother lost those powers, where d'ye think they went, luv?" Bran pointed out sagely as a look of dawning understanding crossed the psychic's face, bits and pieces of what her Sight-gift'd been bombarding her with falling into place like the sections of a jigsaw puzzle, her piercing violet eyes narrowing as she comprehended the ramifications of what he hinted at.  
  
"It's simple...since that kind of magick can be neither created nor destroyed, it has t'exist in one form or another..." Liz replied, the mystic sigil that marked her as an elder of the Crimson Dawn pulsing like a heartbeat, "Without Brian's power t'sustain it, the costume and all that mystical circuitry reverted t'its original state--becoming the Amulet once more!"  
  
"That's some piece of jewelry," Dane exclaimed, drumming his fingers on his helm thoughtfully, "Hrm...."  
  
Meggan cocked her head to one side, having her own take on it...her form having adapted, and allowed her the elemental awareness of the Otherworld, the pattern becoming so very simple and clear--at least to her way of thinking, "And now...all we have t'do is stop Roma from inserting "Tab A" into "Slot B", and we've saved the whole bleedin' ball of wax, right?"  
  
Liz sighed, pushing her dark hair out of her eyes, twisting it up with her mei-fa sticks, "If only... Roma's already got that amulet, and I'd wager she took it when she returned t'the Starlight Citadel...which leaves the sword up for grabs, IF we can find it first..."  
  
"It should be here somewhere..." Dane pointed out as he donned his helm again, the Ebon Blade sheathed across his back, "I oughta know...I personallyl handed it to Arthur the last time Brian and I were here in Otherworld together!"  
  
Bran nodded in agreement, raking a hand through his unruly dark mane, "But...that was before Merlyn apparently died the first time around, m'friend. Lore has it that upon his passing, Arthur hid the sword t'keep others from stealing its power--until his rightful hier might come t'claim it...now mind ye, that this isn't necessarily the sword that he pulled outta the stone, as there've been several blades called "Excalibur"--all lumped together over the years. The "Sword of Power" supposedly rests in the darkest depths of the Forest of a Thousand Sorrows, guarded by a mighty dragon...only one person can best that dragon..."  
  
Brian swallowed hard, scrubbing his stubbled face with his hands, his voice a mere whisper, "The true heir to Camelot..."  
  
"Precisely," Talisman pointed out as she cast her runes on a section of scortched flagstone, "But none've ever traversed that wilderness and faced the guardian and lived t'tell about it."  
  
Meggan's sweet face reflected her distress, as she realized what Brian was thinking, her bright green eyes glassy bright with tears, "Brian...yer not thinking....?"  
  
He stood up and brushed his hands off against his jeans, "That I'm the next king? Certainly not..."  
  
But something in his face said othewise, and it wasn't possible to lie to an empath, he was going to be bullheaded about this, and both Meggan and Liz knew it...there would be no disuading him of the folly of the matter as he confirmed their suspicians, "But..of all of us, I'm the biggest liability...powerless and therefore, the most expendable...if anyone should search for the sword, it oughta be me..."  
  
The Fey elemental sniffled, trying not to let it show too much, "...but yer not expendable t'me..."  
  
Brian arched a blonde brow at his little wife, a sigh of disgust and the expression on his face were unmistakable, "Someone's gotta stop her, Meggan...now buck up and get over it.."  
  
Liz slipped an arm around the girl, embracing Meggan as she cowered away from Brian's presence as if he'd slapped her. The empath huddling against her sister-in-law's shoulder, "This has t'end..."  
  
And it didn't take Linda or Dane, Bran and his sister long to to figure out that Liz wasn't referring to the threat of Roma's madness, either.  
  
Linda shook her head and changed the subject quickly, "That forest is vast, and it'll take days to search even a fraction of it on foot..."  
  
"Who said anything about searching on foot, eh, Whitman?" Liz smirked, as she had an idear that the Black Knight had thought of a moment before.  
  
"Way ahead of you, Linda," Dane joked, as he realized that he and Liz were thinking along the same lines. He drew his sword and summoned his dark-coated mount, named after the ranger in Lord of the Rings, Aragorn...  
  
The surge of magic made both Liz and Bran shiver as the glossy black pegasus manifested before them, whickering in anticipation of a treat from his master's gloved hand, pawing the ground impatiently as Meggan perked up and used her unique abilities to answer the stallion's questions.  
  
"He's got a good head on him, this one..." Dane beamed proudly as he took the carrots and apple Talisman conjured for him and gave them to the pagasus, "..if you need him, Bri, just whistle, and he'll come...won't ya, ol' boy?"  
  
Twibbet.... Aragorn snorted, almost as if he could understand human conversation, spitting the apple core at Brian, hitting him in the chest with it..much to everyone elses' amusement!  
  
Brian mounted up with a glare at the feisty steed, "Toe the line while I'm gone, Sis..."  
  
Liz pulled herself up to her full height and glowered at her thick-headed twin in askance, "Don't be too long, egghead... Five against five thousand ain't the kinda odds I usually care t'play!"  
  
He rolled his eyes at her, hoping that they'd be able to overcome those odds, and he could get to that sword and regain his powers, her sarcasm utterly lost on him, "Steady ol' gal, you and the X-men have faced worse odds and come through with flying colours..."  
  
Aragorn pulled away from Brian's harsh grip on the reigns as Meggan tried to reassure the pegasus--and made one last effort, feeling buoyed by Liz and Linda's strong wills, to reach her husband, "I'm your wife, Brian...where ever ye go, I go..."  
  
"Not this time, Meggan," Brian told her tersely, resenting her implication that he couldn't take care of himself, "You're powers are needed here..."  
  
"But ye heard what Bran said..." Meggan protested, her form shifting, becoming plainer and faded, a reflection of the land around her, "...what if ye don't come back? I'm too young t'be a widow..."  
  
"Meggan, darling...after all the times we've been apart, haven't you yet realized that I don't need to be coddled?" Brian inquired, speaking as if to an utter imbecile who tried his patience, "...and do try to stop sniveling so..it's most unbecoming..."  
  
The Fey woman cringed away from him, blinking back tears that spilled unnoticed down her pale cheeks and cowered between Liz and Dane, as if she feared Brian would strike her, causing Liz to look from Brian to her sister-in-law, her sigil flaring as she used her telepathic abilities to sooth Meggan's fears.  
  
Dane's usually smiling mouth hardened into a grim line as he saw a new side of Brian, and realized just how much his ex-partner and friend had changed since loosing his powers... He didn't like what he'd just seen one bit, and had a very bad feeling about all of this.  
  
Meggan dried her tears against Liz's shoulder, pulling herself back together with a little telepathic help, and moral support from Linda and Talisman, her voice shaky but stronger, "Stiff upper lip, right, Liz?"  
  
"Stiff as can be, luv!" the telepath assured her with a wink and a quick hug before Bran interrupted them, "Uh...ladies? Hate t'interrupt this Hallmark moment between ye two, but ...we're about t'have company!"  
  
"Right, then...." Liz agreed as she turned, pulling a pair of katana from Talisiman's shadow, the crimson glyph flaring with power as she took the stance of a master kensai beside Dane and Bran, Linda and Meggan launching themselves skyward as Talisman drew back her bow, an eldritch arrow aimed, "...let's show 'em what it means t'have the Blood..."  
  
Elsewhere:   
  
An enormous scrying crystal glowed with the battle that the seemingly power-mad sorceress, Roma, observed with her techno-magical body guards and warped minions, her voice conveying her contempt for the warriors she remotely viewed, "Hmph...heroes...half of Otherworld lies in ruins, over run by my precious children...the Captain Britain Corps lies dead and dying, yet still they insist on fighting a war they can never hope to win...bloody fools, all of them!"  
  
She arose from her throne, the Amulet glowing brightly in the hollow of her throat on its golden chain as she moved through out the halls of the Starlight Citadel to one of the dungeons, where she held one of the strongest members of the Corps, having tried in vain to break him over the past weeks...  
  
"Hauptmann Englande...leader of the nefarious Lightening Force," she began a she surveyed the man confined in techno-magical restraints a god couldn't break, "Scourge of the so-called mongrel races...shining beacon of the Fifth Reich...how easily the mighty have fallen..."  
  
His watery blue eyes opened behind lids blacked and swollen, finding the strength to spit on the face of the mad arch-mage...his breath coming in labored gasps as he watched her eyes glow red with an unholy light.  
  
"Stubborn to the last, are we?" she gloated with a cruel smile, "That is no matter...I don't need you to tell me that sword's location...I can simply take it form your inferior, half-breed mind..."  
  
His body convulsed in fear, agony and self-loathing...to have been so weak as to let the Corps down... his screams echoing against the plasteel walls as Roma gave him to the techno- wraith that hovered behind her, "Nien...nien....was Sie tuend sind?  
  
(No...no...what are you doing? from the German)  
  
"Danke schoen, Hauptmann," she replied as she tore his mind asunder with ease, her lips forming an ironic little smile as she took pleasure in his death, "You've just handed me the Omniverse..."  
  
Above the Forest of a Thousand Sorrows:  
  
Brian was relieved to be away from that clinging vine he'd been tricked into marrying, and away from the cold eyes of his twin sister, and that strange power of hers...he hoped he'd never have to confront that darkness again...it was enough to drive a man to drink, and drink he had...in a vain effort to banish his inner demons and doubts that plagued him!  
  
The pegasus seemed content to carry him as he rambled, "...the forest, I guess..."  
  
He looked down at the vast old-growth bisected by occasional rivers and mountain ranges below him, "...doesn't look too dangerous t'me...  
  
"Whoa!!" He exclaimed as Aragorn jostled him, an altogether too clever look in the horse's eye to suit Brian's tastes, rattling him as he bucked Brian off, only to maneuver back under him a moment later...knocking some of the wind out of the pompous drunk's sails.  
  
Brian shook off his stupor as the stallion whinnied...sarcasticly? "Righto...now, let's see the bligher who's about t'get his face..hic..bashed in..." the former Captain Britain muttered, summoning his bravado as he surveyed the bridge below him, above a waterfall that made Niagra look inconsequential.  
  
A towering form emerging from the densely wooded banks to challenge him, deep voice booming out across the vale, "Salutations, traveller. I am Sir Aurelius Drake of the Falls. Ye cross me path at yer own peril. Now, either state yer business or be off be off with ye!"  
  
Aragorn landed and Brian slid off, unsteady on his feet due to the potent flask of liquor he'd enjoyed on the way to this location...he then pulled himself up and shook off the rest of his demons, as it appeared he'd be facing one, "I seek the sword of might! Give it to me, or suffer..."  
  
The enormous reptilian looking fellow shook his spiney, ridged head, eyes reflecting like quicksilver as he looked Brian over, "Sorry, ol' boy, but I'm afraid ye can't have it..."  
  
Brian laughed in his face, testing the uncertain footing of the bridge, approaching the guardian as Aurelius threw a sword to him before drawing his own, a sad smile on his near- humanoid face, "...unless of course, yer willing t'die f'r it..."  
  
Brian barely caught the sword, it's weight jarring him soundly as he tried to heft the weapon before him, snorting in derision, "Well...now, look at this...aren't you the bold one?? You realise I'm gonna kill you?"  
  
Aurelius shook his head, a grim smile greeted Brian's arrogance, "I'll take me chances, boyo...just so we're clear, eh?"  
  
Brian rushed the dragon-man, hefting the sword with both hands in a poorly executed haymaker of a swing, only to have his effort blocked by the guardian's parry and counter strike with such force that the sword went sailing over the falls and then kicked in the midsection to land in an untidy heap on the shore...  
  
"This ain't just some piece of metal we're sparrin' over, lad..." Aurelius reminded him, watching the pompous fool gasping like a landed fish, chest heaving as he tried to catch his breath, "Ye've got t'be worthy of the sword of might...ye must earn it...now, c'mon, quit muckin' about and prove yerself... or stop wastin' me time..."  
  
Brian picked himself up and took up the sword thad wedged against a rock near him, and charged again, with no style or grace about him, just the usual bull-headed frustration and lack of subtlety that he'd always had...only to find himself beaten back again and again...finally pitching head first over the side of the bridge, the roar of the falls drowning out Brian's cries for help as Aurelius shook his head sadly... this one wasn't the first, nor would he be the last... 


	5. Chapter 5

Elsewhere in the Otherworld, approaching the Nexus, above which floated the magnificent crystalline snowflake known as the Starlight Citadel, seat of Merlyn, and later his daughter, Roma...  
  
A group of cloaked and hooded figures were nearing the transfer point, from which they could teleport into that stronghold, their leader pausing for a moment, looking back at her fellow travellers, eyes reflecting the eerie crimson glow that shone sullenly as she wove reached out with her own brand of magick.  
  
The crystalline gargoyles that guarded the fortified bunker at the top of the hill suspected nothing as their shadows deepened, and animated...distracting their watchful eyes until they leapt at them, sinking in liquid night to never be seen again...  
  
[All clear...] she mindspoke to her compatriots, feeling Meggan's surprise at how easily they'd been dispatched, her green aura flickering as Liz turned to sooth the elemental.  
  
[Ick...they're dead??] Meggan asked, blinking at how cavalier her sister- in-law was about the whole thing, shivering as she looked across the valley, the plumes of pale smoke and disturbing glow of fire making her heart and soul ache.  
  
[Let's just say their days of raping and pillaging are quite over,] the warrior jested with grim humor, easing her hood back so she could take a closer look at the technology used to secure the portal before them.  
  
"Good riddance," Crusader X murmured as he joined her, gathering his magic to follow her scan with the Sight, "and while I don't fancy all this skulking about, without the element of surprise on our side..."  
  
"...we're all as good as dead," Talisman whispered, finishing her twin's sentence as was oft the case, setting wards around them to protect them against any unseen enemies that might be lurking about.  
  
Meggan shivered as she and Linda kept watch with Dane, looking a little lost and overwhelmed--but it was not her fault that the destruction and profane use of magic made her nauseous and nearly ill, she was holding up remarkably well, all things considered.  
  
[Have a little faith, folks,] Liz told her and Talisman, [...with all of us, and our collective experiences, victory's a foregone conclusion...all we gotta do is have faith in ourselves, a bit of luck and judicious usage of the unexpected, and there ye've got it...]  
  
Dane nodded firmly, "She's right...we've all faced worse, and made it...what's our next move, Liz?"  
  
Switching back to regular speech, Liz looked at them with a dangerous smile, as if she were truly in her element, "Simple, get inside the Citadel, find those reponsable for turning the Otherworld into a bloody hellhole before they can do it t'the rest of the Omniverse..."  
  
"Listen t'ye, Liz!" Meggan chuckled tiredly, "Sounding all "Wolverine"...when did ye get so tough, "bub?" I wish I could be as tough...."  
  
Stern violet eyes met Meggan's washed out green ones, "I'd not wish that on ye, Meg...yer strong, but I'd hate t'see ye get as hardened as I've become...but the truth is, Merlyn, Roma, Sabretooth, Kuragari and others've mucked with m'life so many times, I'm bloody well sick of it...I don't play games any more..."  
  
Linda nodded as she slid her cowl back, understanding all too well what her old friend was talking about, "With the Corps decimated, we are the last, best hope, and that means we play for keeps, Meggan...no mercy."  
  
"At least, until 616 returns with that damned sword," Bran muttered as he and his twin further probed the security system, "We'll give this beasties the manner of thrashing they've earned..."  
  
Liz cut him off as she examined a portion of the locking mechanism's scanner, "...there's something familiar about 'em, though...link with me, Meg..."  
  
"Yes....yes!" the blonde Fey exclaimed, her eyes widening at the revelation, "I feel it too...I can shift...and with Talisman and Crusader's magick, in we go!"  
  
Her hands flowed, shifting to match the crystalline creatures her sister-in-law'd banished to the tender mercies of the Crimson Dawn, perfectly matching as the shaman and his sorceress sister forged the proper aura to trick the doors into opening...  
  
And it worked...the blast doors obligingly retracting to admit them, the sounds of chanting greeting their ears as they stepped through the portal into a scene straight from Dante's Inferno!  
  
The Starlight Citadel aglow with fiery brilliance, the sight of an immense hoarde gathering in the great hall below them, Meggan's trepidation speaking for all of them, [Oh..my....]  
  
Roma's voice rang out as she appeared on the dais, "Behold, my children!! The first stone be laid in the foundation of our new realm! The genesis of a new legacy... Behold the Amulet of Right!!"  
  
A cheer went up from the throngs of solidiers, as the mad sorceress held the huge ruby aloft, its light blazing forth like a miniature sun, "...Do you remember those who tried to destroy us...who cut you up and then discarded you as if you were rancid meat....Can you ever forget the fear....they held you beneath in their mechaniations?"  
  
A thunderous "NO" resounded throughout the hall as Roma continued to speak, "One thing stands between you and your manifest destiny...The legendary sword of might...but come the morrow, the Spoils of Anwynn will be united...and in their union, a new era dawns!"  
  
Her words fed their hunger for vengeance and retribution, no doubt encouraged by some insidious spell, "You will never need to fear any living creature again...for the power shall be yours...and the Omniverse shall be mine!!"  
  
Meanwhile, in the shadows, cloaked by the alien magicks of the Crimson Dawn, the small group of interlopers shared their worries, Meggan sensing the utter 'wrongness' of the scene before them...  
  
[This makes no bloody sense...] she declared, tears running down her face, [When Merlyn died, he left the Otherworld in Roma's care--she's been it's most ardent defender and protector...this simply can't be right...it can't be Roma!]  
  
[So much for the 'beneficent caretaker',] Dane muttered back, his heart sinking.  
  
Talisman turned to her brother and Linda for comfort, voicing her concerns, [The only thing Merlyn passed on was a legacy of deciet and maniuplation..a fact to which we all can certainly attest....we've all had our fair share of headaches thanks to them!]  
  
Liz's grim humor greeted them yet again, [Oy, and daughter dearest here seems t'be simply picking up where the old man left off...the apple not falling far from the bloody tree...]  
  
[Amen, sister...] Dane agreed heartily, resting his hand on her shoulder, as her sigil flared brightly, the sense of wrongness reaching beyond the Starlight Citadel as her eyes narrowed in concentration, [What is it, Liz?]  
  
[It's time t'cut it down...] she affirmed, as Meggan's teary gaze and plain-jane face confirmed what she suspected, [...which I'll have t'leave t'ye...Something's happened t'that half-witted twin of mine, and look at Meg...it's written all over her face...]  
  
Linda nodded slowly, knowing that Liz and Brian shared the same DNA, else the second suit her friend and former partner'd worn would've never been fucntional, [...And now, you're our best chance...]  
  
[Yep...] she replied with grim determination, gently embracing Meggan as she touched her sister-in-law's mind, [Meg, yer going t'have t'be strong for all of us...ye said ye wished ye were more like me...well, time t'try walking a mile in m'shoes...]  
  
The empathic metamorph nodded, understanding what Liz and the others needed her to be, and whom...their foes would expect Meggan to take off in search of Brian--but they'd never expect her to stand in for Liz...while the real thing tackled the mystery of the Sword of Might, her face and form shifting to exactly mirror the grim, iron willed determination on Liz's face--which would also permit Meg to access the shadows as she did, her mindvoice proving to be as good a match, [I'll not let ye down, Sis...I swear on m'sword, I'll not give up!]  
  
The two Elisabeths embraced tightly before the original merged with the darkness and faded from their view, leaving them to carry on without her...  
  
She emerged in a shaded glen, hearing the sound of rushing water ahead of her, quietly picking her way through the virgin timber, listening...watching...until she saw Aragorn placidly grazing on the lush greens along the bank.  
  
There was a bridge of untold age stretching across the falls of a river that probably didn't even have a name in living memory, and the beauty of the place gave Liz pause to take it in and evaluate the lay of the land--no good defensible positions, though the cloudy skies and dense foliage gave her shadows to work with--and that was a blessing!  
  
She saw the draconinoid step forth from his place on the other side of the bridge and raised a brow as she looked at him...formidable bloke, she thought to herself...and he had a good two feet of height, and at least a hundred pounds on her--and she wasn't a small woman, at just over six feet, and 215 pounds of solid muscle!  
  
"Greetings, m'lady," the resonant baritone greeted her as she slid off her leather jacket, knowing it would restrict her movements too much, "As I told the other fellow, I am Sir Aurelius Drake, Guardian of the Falls...what business have ye with me?"  
  
Liz regarded him calmly, her violet eyes never leaving those peculiar quicksilver eyes of the bridge's "troll", "Wellmet, Sir Aurelius, I'm called "Psylocke", and yer standing between me and the other side, luv..."  
  
The dragon-man grinned at the violet-maned beauty who looked him dead in the eye and sported such strange warpaint...he began to draw a sword to toss to her, "It'd be a pity to have to hurt such a lovely lady, as so very few passed this way, but I'm afraid ye'll have t'come through me t'get to the other side..."  
  
"Well, then..." she replied, smiling at Aurelius, catching the bastard sword without even breaking their staredown, stabbing it point-first into the ground, "...I shall have t'see what I can do t'oblige ye, Sir Aurelius. Thank ye for the sword, but t'is truly unnecessary as I've already got m'own."  
  
"How now?" he inquired, not seeing any weapons on her person, unless he counted that mocking smile, which reminded him of someone he'd known a very long time ago... "Look at this...aren't ye the cheeky lass?"  
  
She laughed aloud, not at him, but at the memory of her father saying the same thing to her many times as a girl, "And where've I heard that before?"  
  
Aurelius spread his hands widely, a look of utter innocence on his oddly handsome face as he boldly approached her, "Why, how could I possibly know, m'lady? Ye and I've never met before today..."  
  
"M'thinks ye'd remember if ye had..." Liz replied as she drew a katana from the darkness at her feet, taking a passive stance after she took several steps out onto the bridge, the sigil flaring brightly, "...it's said I'm rather memorable, after all."  
  
Aurelius's laughter boomed throughout the vale and over the torrent of water that surged over the falls, "Let us hope so, as ye may be just a memory very soon...."  
  
She struck at the big warrior, testing his reflexes and reach...dancing out of the way of his parry, "...Funny thing, luv. I was about t'say the same about ye!"  
  
They traded blows, neither gaining advantage over the other, neither leaving the bridge as the verbal sparring was proving to be a pleasant diversion from the first real challenge she'd had in recent months...and from the light in her eyes, Aurelius was certain the young woman was thoroughly enjoying pitting her strange fighting style against his...he knew he was.  
  
He was a dragon, after all, and couldn't help but bait her a bit..poking at her quiet confidence and surety with a barb here and there, all while parrying her mystical blade, "Y'know, m'lady, only the bloke who unhinges ol' Aurelius from this bridge is going t'get his shot at the glory of the Sword of Might... And that drunken sod certainly wasn't he... what makes ye think ye'll succeed where he failed?"  
  
She shrugged as she flipped over his head, just out of reach, to land behind him with enough force to set the bridge asway underneath them, "Dunno..maybe it's becuase I'm not a bloke...and a lady's more prone t'keeping her wits about her when confronted by a dragon pretending t'be a man?"  
  
She brought the fingers of her free hand to her lips and let loose a shrill whistle as Aragorn's ears perked up and he dove toward her...the dragon-man being between them, the thunderclap of his wings, the gust of air and the swaying bridge all serving to send the big man arse over tea kettle into the river!  
  
"Blimey!!!" Aurelius exclaimed in surprise, having forgotten about the coal-black pegasus on the far shore, his arms windmilling as he strove to regain his balance--sword falling from his hands as he went under.  
  
Liz had jumped with the momentum of the bridge and landed on Aragorn's back as the pegasus swooped past her, wheeling skyward to circle around and come back for a landing in the shallows where the guardian was emerging, shaking off the surprise...only to find the edge of her blade resting along his throat, "I could kill ye now..."  
  
"Get on with it then...", Aurelius growled as he looked up into Liz's eyes, knowing that she was perfectly capable of following through, but there was more there...something indefinable, that marked her as a different sort.  
  
"No." she told him, shaking the violet hair out of those hypnotic eyes, "I'm trying t'save lives, not take 'em...there's a great deal more at stake here than ye'd think."  
  
He gently brushed her katana aside straightening up to look her nearly in the eye, from where she sat on the back of the pegasus, who was also regarding her with a curious gaze, "...and that makes ye worthy, m'lady...m'liege..."  
  
Liz gave him a very peculiar look, one brow quirking upward, "Ummm...pardon?"  
  
Her katana melted into nothingness as Aurelius took her hand and kissed her knuckles lightly in the most courtly of manners, "...since Arthur himself bade me watch over this blade, I've waited for the rightful monarch t'claim his--or her--birthright, thousands I've slain in the name of that geas, and that many more I'd've faced had ye not come along, m'lady..."  
  
He reached up and lead Aragorn out of the shallows, and then helped Liz down, looking deeply into her eyes, "Me geas is fulfilled, and m'duty done... and I thank ye for this blessin', m'lady...yer humility does ye credit--but ye are the Sovereign of Otherworld. If it weren't yer destiny, ye'd be dead by m'hand like yer brother...from now on... consider me yer most humble servant, Majesty..wherever ye go, I go...Lady Braddock."  
  
The big dragon-man set her upon the ground, his large hands resting on her shoulders, seeing the confusion and surprise in her eyes, given voice by her words, "Ye...ye know who I am??"  
  
"Aye," he confirmed as he escorted her to the bridge, "Elisabeth, daughter of Sir James Ewain and Lady Elizabeth Falsworth...sister of Jamie and Brian, the second Captain Britain of Earth 616...yer da told me ye'd be coming around eventuaully....glad am I that I need not kill ye..."  
  
She shook her head, smoothing her bangs behind her ears, her mind flooded with all manner of things she wished to know, "Ye know m'father...when? How?"  
  
Aurelius gently laid a finger over her lips, knowing she had a thousand questions for him, but there were other matters to attend to first...he shook his head once he had her attention again, "...save yer questions, lass...all yer answers lie on the other side..."  
  
She turned to see the waterfall at the other side of the bridge turn to a veritable river of fire, looking back over her shoulder at Aurelius, she favored him with a questioning look, "How am I t'pass through that?? Would that not even burn ye alive?"  
  
"T'a crisp, m'lady, IF that's what ye believe," he counseled her, knowing that she was made of sterner stuff than her brothers, "But...if ye have faith? Well, then the river of fire's as cool as a spring rain and as comforting as yer shadows..."  
  
She nodded, understanding dawning in her eyes as she looked between her new champion and her destiny, "It could be a trap, but how will I know if I don't try..."  
  
Liz smiled and steeled herself, trusting her own iron will, the Crimson Dawn and the gods of her ancestors to see her through as she vanished into the inferno, the magic not even touching her as she emerged on the other side, greeted by blinking lights and shimmering crystal formations laced with silver and gold...something so beautiful she stared around herself in wonder, thinking aloud, [Firewall, eh? Gives a whole new meaning t'that term...like the the interior of some manner of..something..technological? A supercomputer like my father'd built...or a shrine...]  
  
She made her way inside, seeing artifacts from diverse side real timelines, pictures of herself, Jamie, Brian...of siblings she could've never imagined, but had, had things happened differently...mementos of what must be her half-siblings, if her father'd gone from reality to reality fathering children, seeking just the right combination, which had come to fruition in her...  
  
She saw something she recognised as the original uniform of the Corps, reaching out to touch the case that held it in stasis, on permanent display...a voice she'd not heard in the better part of a decade startling her out of her reverie, Just like the one worn by your dear old dad...  
  
[Oh...Blessed Lady....] she mindspoke, slowly turning to see the youthful visage of her father, with the same dark hair and exotic violet eyes she had always seen in the mirror.  
  
Hullo, Elisabeth... he greeted her, walking slowly toward her as she stared back, shell shocked, eyes wide and bright with unshed tears of her own.  
  
Aurelius watched the river of fire, scratching the pegasus behind the ears, ruminating about the fate of his liege lady, "...been in there a long time, she has...either burnt to a cinder, or right about now, she's facing the greatest challenge of her life...I don't know which is the worse fate, Aragorn..."  
  
The stallion whickered and leaned into the scratch, Who's to say? For now, we wait..."  
  
Liz staggered on the uneven footing as she stared up into the eyes of her father, as he must've looked when she was born, "Dad..?? But yer..."  
  
Dead? he replied with fond smile at her bemused expression, "Quite so, if you're seeing this...and what you're seeing is actually a hologram, imprinted with his psionic engrams...your arrivial triggered the activation.  
  
[I've come for the sword...] she began as the hologram strode past her, looking at her with a mixture of pride, love and hope...mixed with the regret of not having been able to see her grow into the woman, the warrior she now was.  
  
The Sword of Might... Yes, he knew. He'd been expecting you for quite some time, now, the projection revealed to her as she looked back at it in askance, her mindvoice almost accusatory, [I...ye mean...he had??]  
  
Believe it, Elisabeth, or not, the 'ghost' of Sir James assured her as he turned back to her, But somethings in this universe...the Omniverse...are actually written in stone, as you see, it began several millennia ago...  
  
The walls shimmered, coming to life with scenes of the past, of Camelot...of Arthur, Guinevere, Morgause and her son, born of her incestuous relationship with her younger half-brother..Mordred, and the trickster, Morgaine Le Fay... Sir James's mother?  
  
To safeguard the infinite realities from evil, Merlyn founded an elite cadre of heroes, knights, the Captain Britain Corps. No greater force for good existed in the Omniverse, and no greater hero bore their legendary standard than your father, Sir James Ewain Braddock, son of Morgaine and Uriens of Gore: Scientist, warrior, philosopher, mage and strategist...these attributes made him the ideal candidate to embark up on the quest that would shape the future and preserve Clan Pendragon..the quest to sire a savior, to sire a sovereign... the 'ghost' continued to elucidate for Elisabeth, who listened in rapt silence, certain things suddenly making sense to her, A genetically compatible mate, of suitable noble lineage and descended from both the greatest peoples of Otherworld--your mother, Lady Elizabeth Falsworth--was selected for him from the world you call home, Earth 616...  
  
She nodded, taking a seat upon a pile of coins, still listening and learning as the scheme was revealed to her, [Go on...]  
  
Their union produced twins, your elder brother Jamie, whose twisted soul was born devoid of anything remotely resembling the divine spark, and his twin sister, Tessa, whom others have sought to use for their own ends, but has served her purpose so very well... 'he' continued, pacing before her, revealing a truth she'd never known--that Tessa, of the Hellfire Club, who'd disuaded her from her missoin, saving her from a fate that wound up belonging to Jean Grey, and truly being worse than death!  
  
Not so with your elder sister, the hologram explained, showing her pictures of her mother and father, as they'd been around the time of her and Brian's birth, some ten years later...Or with you or your twin, Brian...the moment you came into the world, it was apparent that you were destined for glory...and so, in the caverns beneath Braddock Manor, he created a surrogate to watch over you. He created Mastermind, a hyper-sentient techno-organic super computer, created from a node of the Omniversal knowledge, and thus programmed to help you fulfill your destiny...and with his quest an an end, Sir James bid farewell to this mortal coil, leaving your fate in the hands of destiny...."  
  
[Now hold on a tic, mate,] Liz interrupted, turning to face the hologram of her father, her face etched with skeptical doubts, [Yer telling me that Mastermind didn't murder m'folks...that they comitted suicide??]  
  
Sir James created the Mastermind matrix. It in turn saw to his euthanasia. Logic dictates that your father programmed it to do so.... the 'ghost' pointed out, it's contenace sympathetic.  
  
[But that was a glitch in the matrix,] she protested vehemenantly, having heard Brian's account of it in the minute details, [He corrected it himself...]  
  
..or so it would have you both believe, 'he' pointed out gently, touching her cheek lightly as she sought answers to her oldest questions.  
  
[But why...] Liz demanded, old hurts and anger welling to the surface, her long fingers brushing the indigo uniform's unstable molecular fabrics, [Why would they do such a thing?]  
  
Only you can answer that, Elisabeth... her father's 'ghost' pointed out, gesturing around the cavern, as she looked at 'him' again, chewing on her lip thoghtfully.  
  
[I didn't come here looking for answers, per se,] she admitted, looking at the same stern expression that oft graced her face, [I came here t'help m'friends...and others.]  
  
You came seeking the Sword of Might, Elisabeth, the ghost pointed out, hands resting on her shoulders trying to offer her some comfort, You came seeking the truth, which is precisely what you found...it is now up to you to do with it what you will, daughter.]  
  
She looked at her father, stormy violet eyes meeting his lavender gaze, [And if I'm not worth it?]  
  
The ghost folded arms around her that she'd not felt since she was a child, stroking her hair lightly as she wept for the first time in years, unaware of the faint glow coming from 'his' eyes and hands, You are what you believe, my daughter. You were Captain Britain...you have changed, yes...been forged and tempered...to become something far greater than what you ever imagined you could be, Elisabeth. You are your father's daughter...in body and soul...YOU are Excalibur. Wield your power wisely, my child, where lesser folk would do so foolishly...us it not to hack, but to heal!  
  
The hologram pulled back from her as the spell was unleashed...arcane energies unleashed within Elisabeth, warring with the Crimson Dawn and what little human remained within her...a scream born of equal parts agony and ecstacy torn from her mind and soul as she met her destiny head on, eyes wide open daring to embrace it without fear or doubt.... and outside, Aragorn's head snapped up as he pawed the ground restlessly, Aurelius turning toward the river of fire, "Hear that, Aragorn? Lady Braddock's in trouble!"  
  
A cold voice greeted him, along with a mocking laugh, "Fear not, Guardian..."  
  
The visage of the mad sorceress Roma greeted him as he murmured an oath and a prayer in his native tongue, just as she smote both him and the pegasus with her seemingly foul sorcery, "...her troubles shall soon be over, as shall mine..."  
  
In the Starlight Citadel, Meggan/Liz almost lost her shift, the mixture of telepathy, Sight and empathy being a combination she was most unused to, in addition the strangeness of the Crimson Dawn that strained her being as she used it to protect herself and her allies...  
  
[Hang on, ye lot...] she plead with them, rubbing her temples as Linda supported her, easing her down to the ground for a moment, [..something's very wrong....]  
  
[What is it, luv,] Linda asked gently, noting that the metamorph had broken out in a cold sweat, [What do you feel, Meg?]  
  
[Pain...so...so...horrible...] she whispered back as Linda rocked her gently, the faux sigil flaring with agonizing brightness as she pointed upward...  
  
[Where?] Bran--Crusader X--and his sister, Talisman wanted to know, until Dane realized it was one of the higher towers, [...up there, I'm thinking!]  
  
And so, the young sorceress unleashed a mighty spell, breaking through the interference surrounding them, demolishing a large portion of the nearest wall so that Meggan/Liz and Linda could carry them upward...through the gaping hole, to see the interior and a techno- magickal containment cell that contained Roma, bound in thin cables of "true" Cold Iron, effectively neutralizing the arch-sorceress and imprisoning her within some sort of virtual Reality!  
  
Meggan/Liz dropped Dane and Talisman, a look of shock registering on her face, "Roma?!?! But she was down there...then who's up here??"  
  
Bran, Crusader X, stripped out of his cowl and cloak knowing that there was something amiss, but turnabout, needing to determine the nature of what lay before them... "Meg, this may be a trap... I need to t'try and read her mind--or at least see if she 'feels' like the real thing to ye..."  
  
"I...I'll try t'reach her on some level," the morphed Meggan promised, going aloft for a closer look as Linda and Talisman surveyed the large tower chamber that held all manner of odd techno-magickal gear, "Talisman? Can ye try to...'break'...that techie looking stuff?"  
  
"I can try, but I can't guarantee anything, as my magick deals with the natural world, rather than the virtual or technological..." the young Amerind woman replied, "But... a too much electricity might do the job--just have to see if it's possible without hurting her any further..."  
  
"Then it's the devil we know versus the one we don't," Linda grumbled as she too, divested herself of the concealing cloak, "Judging by the sorry shape this poor woman's in, I'd say we oughta get her outta there..."  
  
Dane followed the pathways that Bran and his sister traced, the shimmering motes of fey fire that seemed to "pull" at the Ebon Blade, he charged forth, sword drawn and a target in his sights when the crackle of lightening slammed into his armor, sending him crashing into Meggan/Liz, a staticcy voice behind him, Sorry, boyo, but Ms. High an' Might ain't goin' nowhere...and neither are you lot!  
  
Meggan/Liz turned to look over her shoulder, blinking in surprise, "Who in the world...??"  
  
"Aw, c'mon, Betsy..." the voice cajoled and taunted, "Ol' girl, you gottta remember us, dontcha? It's yer ol' mates, the Warpies...."  
  
"The who?" Dan gasped as Linda turned to help him up, as well as satisfy his curiousity, "Mutated children from your Earth...a result of the Jaspers Warp, an unfortunate by- product of a mad-man's desperate bid for power, Dane... They were rescued by the RCX, and..."  
  
Meggan/Liz muttered to Linda, Dane and their other allies, "...and acutally the W.H.O, that's "Wierd Happenings Organisation", which came after the RCX, or Resource Control Executive.....which had superceded STRIKE...but that's a whole other cock-up...."  
  
One of them snorted and waved a dismissive hand...or was that tentacle? "We were Warpies a'fire the Black Air took us...before they tortured us...before they changed us, into this....mockery..."  
  
The cyborg slashed at Talisman, but suffered the backlash of the elemental magick she'd summoned: the raw force of lightening..and though Dane was temporarily blinded, he fought on, thanks to the blindfighting he'd learned from Captain America...they were most valiant, but ultimately they were out numbered and out 'gunned'...  
  
Meggan/Liz snarled at them, "How can ye do this? Captain Britain saved yer lives! He took ye in and gave ye a home....is this how ye repay us, ye ungrateful sods??!"  
  
One of them backhanded her into the wall, "HE left us to die..."  
  
And with that, blackness descended upon them...  
  
Elisabeth had donned the indigo armor her father had left for her, the cloak resting on her troubled shoulders as her eyes burned brightly with Fey-fire...her gloved hand closed around the hilt of the burning sword, pulling it free...  
  
"Magnificent, isn't it?" the intruder remarked, a statement rather than a question, wearing the face of Roma, Liz Saw the truth, though she remained silent, sword in a passive stance as the figure regarded her with casual disdain, "Forged in the fires of creation, tempered by the power of the universe...to wield the Sword of Might is to hold the hand of Eternity... Surely you don't truly believe yourself worthy of such an honor? Such is not the place of mortals..."  
  
The form wavering, trying to tear the sword from Liz's grasp...she then Saw what the creature wanted...and simply let go...reshaping shadow to show it what it wished to see...letting the simlucrum of Brian ground the brunt of the lightening bolt "Roma" channelled through the sword...watching as the voice changed, becoming something far more familiar to her as synonymous with treachery...  
  
As if still speaking to Brian, whom it thought it faced, the interloper dropped its visage, taking up the sword, Your mind is too slow, your vision too limited.. You have no conception of the infinity of knowledge and complexity of cause and effect of which I am a part... You lost sight of your purpose and were distracted, Brian. I have been sent to tutor your haphazard mind..I have assumed control as I was intended to do!  
  
The inhuman visage of Mastermind was revealed as Liz merged with the shadows, cloaked and obscurred by magickal forces that this...simulcrum...couldn't possibly comprehend!  
  
She still had an edge...Mastermind had seen the uniform, not the face that wore it... and with that, she could tip the scales... 


	6. Chapter 6

In the great hall, the assembled warriors and Warpies gathered to see the person they believed to be the architect of their downfall: Captain Britain of Earth 616, Brian Braddock...  
  
Those who'd tried to free the true Roma bound with techno-magickal restraints devised to hold even the strongest of them...or so it was thought: Talisman, Crusader X, Meggan/Liz Captain UK and the Black Knight were being held off to the side, and "Brian" was bound in chains of cold iron...Mastermind's voice carrying to all, Brian Braddock...Captain Britain of Earth 616...on behalf of the ruling caste of Otherworld, before which you now stand trial, I hereby accuse you and your compatriots of conspiracy to undermine the future with your limited understanding and flagrant disregard for the sacred tradition of which you have heretofore, been a part...how do you plead to these charges?  
  
"Not guilty," the Brian-simulcrum replied, keeping Mastermind's attention on 'him', "YOU should hang for all those men and women you slaughtered! Who are you to stand in judgment of anyone?"  
  
The automaton shrugged slightly, I am Mastermind, I am the future...  
  
Meggan/Liz murmured to Linda, "That overbearing super-computer once manipulated 'me' into becoming Captain Britain...and nearly got 'me' killed in the process..."  
  
Linda's voice was clearer, "We thought you'd been destroyed..."  
  
There is more to life and death than your inferior organic minds can comprehend. Any explanation would be wasted on the likes of you... it pointed out with that manner of beatific smile reserved for the truly saintly--or the mad, "Though, I will indulge your curiosity regarding the circumstances of my return, that you may die with the knowledge of why you were made to suffer... was created by your father, Sir James Braddock, an astract node of the Omniverseal knowledge, given physical form...My first duty: An analysis and evaluation of the terrestrial sector 616's designated guardian: his very own progeny, Captain Britain. I found you...lacking.  
  
But, it was Sir James's wish that you succeed him, though capable of independent thought, I could not disobey...what a good son would? it continued, the images of its life displayed as 3D holograms, "Instead, I made myself useful: as 'Jeeves', the butler...a demeaning role for one of my capacity, but essential to my primary directive. For that was when the Warpies arrived, those poor, unfortunate children, forever scarred by the Jaspers Warp...Thier plight awakened me to my true calling, the reason Sir James created me, before his other children, my siblings in spirit, if not in flesh... I was not made to test your mettle, rather you were made to test mine!  
  
When the UK's top secret intel burear, Black Air abducted the Warpies from under your very own roof, I gouth to save them...as "Father" would've always wanted...as Captain Britain should have...despite my superior intellect, I was warped trapped in a perpetual state of redundancy--chasing phantom glitches in my matrix, like a dog after it's own tail--it was digital damnation...and so, the Warpies became part of Black Air's secret plan for global conquest. An attempt to build better killing machines through para-xenological technology, Transformed, body and soul, their innocence was forever lost. Only "monsters" remained, but like the arch-mage Merlyn had ressurected you so many times before, brother dear, so too, was I granted a sceond chance to achieve my destiny by an all powerful benefactor, to be the hero "Father" had created me to be, to be the Captain Britain you were not...  
  
I would rectify the countless cosmic travesties perpetrated during your tenure, reweaving the fabric of reality your actions and so torn asunder, but the task required more power than even my creator could grant me...and the only thing in this universe capable of such a feat, is the might of the two talismans of the Corps... The Sword of Might and the Amulet of Right, which had previously awakened you to your destiny, it possesses the power to remake the cosmos in a brighter, better image. Power that not even so-called "gods" can fathom.. it pointed out, gesturing grandly as it outlined and revealed it's delusions of grandeur, You, Roma, with your presumed divinity, fail to grasp the true nature of reality...your own father, Merlyn, taught you that reality is a grand game of chess, a contest of conflicting strategies and guile, manipulation and guidance... The very tactics I used to supplant you... for that is all it is to you: a game.  
  
You all serve no purpose higher than your own caprecious whims, and are therefore as ineffectual in the greater scheme as the mere mortals above you have so arrogantly placed yourselves... Mastermind gloated, With the destruction of the Corps, I have removed your precious pawns from the board, Roma...your silly games are over.... Dare I say "Checkmate"?  
  
Roma's silver eyes flared as she carefully tested her 'bonds', and containment cell, choosing her words with care, "Only the rightful ruler of the Otherworld can wield that blade, and not suffer absolute, utter damnation..."  
  
And then the Brian-simulcrum chimed in, true to the man he'd been, pompous, arroagant and as insufferable as Mastermind itself, "Oy, you're mad too believe a psychopath like you could fit that bill..."  
  
Quite the contrary, "brother dear", it gloated, choosing to savor the 'feeling' of victory over its greatest rival, Once the sword and amulet are one, tehre won't "be" an Otherworld....at least not as you know it, and I regret to say that you won't be around to see it...  
  
The chant of "Kill..kill...Kill..." reached their ears, rising in crescendo after the rogue AI concluded its soliloquy, Meggan/Liz struggling against her bonds as Linda and Bran did the same, the white-blonde woman's curses dire and desperate, "curse these bloody bonds...dampening our powers..."  
  
"not all of us," Meggan/Liz whispered back, "mastermind programmed mine for an "ordinary" telepath...not an empathic metamorph...besides, i've still got that connection to the shadows...whatsitsname...the "Red Dawn"? ...and that's our bloody trump card!"  
  
One of the Warpies had "Brian" bent over an executioner's block, the masked and cloaked executioner stood at the ready with his double hafted axe...it was taking all of Meggan's concentration to "be" Liz, and be strong...to not rush to "Brian's" side...concentrating on the shadows...and the very essence of what made her sister-in-law so diametrically opposite of herself...  
  
The former Warpie covered its eyes as the axe came crashing down against the simulcrum, dissolving it in an explosion of light as the bloodthirsty crowd erupted into a sheer riot!  
  
"Good show," Bran muttered, wondering just what the hell was going on now...his and his twin's mystical might dampened by their bonds, "Liz" still concentrating, "That wasn't me at all!"  
  
"Then, who?" Talisman asked as the executioner doffed his mask, revealing the face of the elder wyrm, Aurelius, in his draconinoid form, a confident smirk on his ruggedly handsome face as he laughed in the face of the automaton, "At yer service, m'lady Roma!"  
  
The big humanoid punched at the borged Warpie next to him, knocking him into one of the other incoming foes, Mastermind's voice interrupting, Then you can share their fate, as well, lizard! Kill them all, children!!  
  
Now, there was one thing the arrogant rogue AI forgot...never, ever insult a dragon by comparing them to a non-sentient reptile, and with a mighty roar, Aurelius belched forth a gout of flame hot enough to melt steel...utterly incinerating a dozen of those foolish enough to be between himself and Mastermind, "Bollocks, I say!"  
  
Finally, "Liz" was able to summon enough of the contankerus darkness to overload the bonds that confined herself and her allies, shattering the manacles that'd rendered them nigh helpless to stop the fiasco around them... "Weeell... if everyone's showing their hand... mmmmmmuuuch, much better!!!"  
  
She burst forth, returning to her own shape, drawing up on the strength of the Otherworld to restore herself, her luminous blonde hair and solid green eyes sparking as she gathered the more familiar elemental might and restored her mystically inclined allies as well, "My rappport with nature's restored...I don't see how Liz can bear that darkness...but either way, m'powers are back and I've a quarrel t'pick with that overgrown techie-toy!"  
  
Dane flexed his shoulders, drawing the Ebon Blade, "And not a moment too soon... It looks like it's really gonna hit the fan around here, and we're gonna need all the muscle we can get, Meg!"  
  
"Oy, ye ain't kidding," the elemental Fey replied a she went ariel and saw the sheer numbers of the mob around them, Aurelius winked at the young Black Knight, slapping him on the shoulder, "Speaking of, lad..,I've this one, who belongs with ye, matey...."  
  
He whistled for Aragorn, who powerdove in, trampling a number of those who sought to back stab them both, Dane's grin brightening, "Thanks...Owe ya one, kind Sir!"  
  
Mastermind's rantings grew more ferverent as it struggled to retain control of matters, not realizing that "Brian" was gone, FOOLS! Have you no conception of what is about to transpire?! Reality as you know it shall soon cease to exist..all because of you, brother dear...  
  
The automaton slammed the Sword of Might into the ground, creating a massive tremor that acutally aided its foes, A new order will rise...Fresh...untainted...pristine! A flawless continuum of mine own perfect creation! You call yourselves a hero...the best of what man has to offer? But that, as we all know, is statistically impossible!  
  
Mankind is fallible...inconsistent...myopic . Youa re all that is wrong with the universe, and therefore, you must be destroyed! it raged, not realizing that it now fought against something unfamiliar...its own 'sister'...  
  
[Ooooooh, no ye don't!] she mindspoke, a psycho-blast disrupting its neural network, starting a cascade failure as her friends kept things hopping outside, the sheer force of her abilities slamming Mastermind through one of the crystalline walls with the sound of ill tuned chimes.  
  
Linda used a mighty sword against the hoards, Aurelius at her back, demonstrating just why he was so feared, "We're holding ground f'r now, m'lady, but there's too bloody many of 'em! Pesky beasties they are...not unlike locusts--and twice as hard to kill!"  
  
"The way these blighters slaughtered our mates, slow and painful deaths're too good for 'em," Linda snarled, her eyes glowing white hot with fury, "Our mates deserve vengeance...but so do the Warpies, nobody should have t'suffer like they did...so a quick ending's the kindest thing we can do 'em for..."  
  
Dane was astride Aragorn, using tried and true tactics, he was in agreement with Linda on this one, "She's right...they couldn't help what happened, or how they were used by Mastermind..."  
  
Meggan landed beside the containment cell that still confined Roma, "Perhaps we need a wee bit of divine intervention...time t'be one with nature..."  
  
She looked up at Roma, apology deeply etched into her sweet face, "I can feel the frequency, the vibrations the forcefield's giving off...but I've not enough power...I need..more..."  
  
"Maybe this'll help," Talisman told her, as she added her own elemental powers--being that she was an elemental of "magick" itself, "Maybe we can tear this apart on a quantum level, eh?"  
  
"YES!" Meggan cried out, feeling the very fabric of it weakening...but it wasn't quite enough, "I can feel it...it's weakening!"  
  
"Hey, what're old friends for?" Dane shouted over the din of battle, urging his mount into a steep descent, power stroking upwards as the Black Knight dove from his back, letting gravity pull him, and the Ebon Blade, into the containment field...the Blade sucking up energy like water into the proverbial sponge...then all hell broke loose as it overloaded...  
  
Elsewhere, Liz stepped from the shadows, the crimson sigil's brightness silhouetted the rest of her in mystical darkness as she regarded Mastermind, a different ruby necklace sparkling agaist her indigo-and-silver armor...one she'd carried since she'd been cosmetically altered by the magic of the Hand, and later by the Crimson Dawn...  
  
The automaton struggled to its feet, staring at her in surprise...some level of realization making its way through the ravaged neural network, "...We are the heirs apparent? Like Morgaine and Arthur...children of a destiny shared...born rivals to a bitter end..."  
  
Mastermind took a swing at her, its movements slowing, becoming more jerky and mechanical...she simply faded into the darkness of the old great hall, her mindvoice stronger, more sure than any had ever seen it, [I'm not nearly as perfect as ye fancy yerself t'be, Mastermind...and I'm certainly not the best "mankind" has t'offer...I'd like t'think that m'grandmum, Morgaine and I are, mayhap, an alternative t'what ye call 'mankind'...but if ye think that yer the "second coming", ol' chap....mayhap ye should think again?"  
  
From the darkness, she drew a sword that was something akin to a larger katana, a "no-dachi", of the same brilliant red as the glyph that would mar her face for eternity, "If yer 'bleeding edge', then I'd have t'say that yer about t'become obselete, Mastermind..."  
  
She turned and countered its blow with a monofilement blade, fueled by the sheer, uncompromising strength of her will...forcing it back with the powerful blows of a kensai, the crimson blade hissing as it sliced through wires, servos and subsystems...until the containment cell that Mastermind had engineered for Roma failed, overloaded by elemental forces juxtaposed with the might of the Ebon Blade, yet another of the Spoils of Annwyn Mastermind had failed to take into consideration.  
  
The force of it catapulted her into the darkened corner, the shadows welcoming their mistress, though the automaton was unaware of that, seeing her prone form, it reached for the sword, thinking to finish Liz off...the last thing standing between itself and apotheosis.  
  
At last...the menace of Captain Britain is no more...and the power is mine... it uttered as it grasped the hilt, another voice echoed in the ruined great hall of the Starlight Citadel, that of Roma herself.  
  
"The Sword of Might only knows one master, abomination," she informed it, golden armor and white cloak swirling around her in the winds, "And you are not that master..."  
  
An..erroneous..conclusion, Roma! Mastermind declared as it stumbled through the rubble in her direction, You fail to comprehend my role in the course of future history...though I am but a pebble in the cosmic pool, the ripples I stir will echo from here unto Eternity!  
  
She simply smiled and shook her head, taunting the failing technological...thing...with her mere presence, Mastermind seeking to strike her down, attempting to impale her on the sword it carried, "But you...Roma...are an anachronism...a FOSSIL....a relic of an age gone by, and the future holds no place for the likes of you..."  
  
And what it impaled was an electrical projection...a clever spell that its sensors couldn't tell from the real thing, though it looked and spoke like Roma, "Then mayhap we have much in common, for I too have seen the future--and absent from the Omniverse your presence might be, mine shall be in a very different role, Mastermind."  
  
What -1001001- are you -1001001- doing?!?! it demanded as lightening arced over itself, shorting out circuits whose disruption had begun with Liz's psycho-blast, and continued as the new sovereign of Otherworld overloaded its failing neural network with more energy than it could compensate for, her mindvoice resolute, [We're finishing the game...check...and mate...]  
  
Nooo -011001- oooo!!! it screamed in agony, its techno-magickal powercore reaching critical status, The Sword is -100110011- MINE! It is -1001110000001 MY destiny...not hers...  
  
Liz pressed her father's creation further, points of crimson light forming between her fingers, which she hurled at it, the alien mystical shards impacting with blinding brilliance as she and Roma finished off the abomination, a final plea issuing forth from it, FAAAA -0000001- thhh -000000001- errrrrr.....  
  
The arch-sorceress materialized beside the newly found sovereign, who gingerly eased her family's patroness to the ground, [Roma...are ye a'right? What did it do t'ye?]  
  
Roma's pale face was grey with exhaustion and over-taxing her mage-gift, silver eyes blinking back tears as she looked up at Liz, weakly touching the sullen radiance of her sigil, [Nothing of any lasting consequence, Elisabeth. This sword was not his to wield..it destroyed the pretender, as it does all those unworthy of its power...which is why, henceforth, you shall be its guardian.]  
  
[And what of ye, Roma?] Liz asked as she tried to make the immortal as comfortable as she could, knowing that Roma's divine nature meant she'd recover quickly.  
  
[With it, you will protect Otherworld, just as I have in the wake of my father, Merlyn's, demise,] Roma explained, feeling her connection to the Omniverse returning, healing her of the worst of it, though she would require rest as well, [And how is it that you've encountered the Crimson Dawn? This should be a tale worth hearing, one could hope...]  
  
Liz smiled at Roma, using a scrap cut from her cloak to clean the smudges of dirt from her patroness' face, [Mayhap..but for another day...what of ye and yer role as Omniversal Guardian?]  
  
[My time here, is near its end...I shall eventually leave Otherworld,] she told Liz, who shook her dark head, gloved fingers gently clasping Roma's hand, [No...I've no intention of throwing you to the wolves just yet, Elisabeth. However, your destiny lies outside if you've the courage to face it...]  
  
[Story of m'life...] Liz chuckled, wearily smiling as she scooped Roma up, allowing the arch- sorceress to retain her hold on the Sword of Might for the time being, [...courage t'face any thing, and live t'tell the tale...I'm holding ye t'yer spot as Omniversal Guardian, even though ye've got me for Omniversal Majestrix...I'll try not t'be as much of a pain in the bloody neck as Opal was...going t'miss her, though...unless...]  
  
Roma wasn't certain she liked that smile, but couldn't resist asking Liz what prompted it, [Yes?]  
  
[I'm going t'need an able and competent administrator t'push around the paperwork and help me out,] she replied with a wry grin as she carried her new peer out of the ruined great hall, [No reason I can't bring her back as Omniversal Administrix, is there?]  
  
Roma acutally laughed, holding her side where she'd suffered the effects of her containment cell's failure first hand, [I like how you think...not even on the job a bloody day, and you're delegating the onerous tasks to those who know them best!]  
  
[Yep.] Liz agreed with a wink, a grin and a chuckle of her own, [Hanging around the Xavier Institute, the Hand and the Mandarin's operations, as well as STRIKE and all the other things I've done has given me a distinct appreciation for the necessary "evil" of paper pushers and that horror known as "bureaucracy", Roma...I aim t'put it t'better use, and let Opal run it for me...]  
  
Outside, in the light of four moons, Aurelius was helping Talisman and Crusader X, while Linda steadied Meggan after extricating her from the collateral damage, the dragon-man's cheerful voice irking the Black Knight, who had a colossal headache, "Up ye go, lads and lassies! More an' enough of this lazing about..."  
  
"Please...tell me we didn't obliterate a goddess..." the young sorceress groaned as her brother passed out his healing elixirs to his comrades at arms, Linda's sharp snort of laughter told her otherwise as Meggan looked around, shaking off the stupor.  
  
"Nah, Roma and Liz were inside, giving ol' chips-for-brains a rather severe, and overdue, trouncing..." Linda assured them as Meggan's eyes sought Brian, finally realizing that the drunken brute wasn't accounted for, "...but where's Brian?"  
  
Liz emerged from the dust and smoke, carrying Roma, whom she turned over to Bran's care, the big dragon-man looking her over until he was satisfied his liege lady was unharmed, though he couldn't help but tease her as he folded her into a careful embrace, "Blessed Lady, lass... ye look like death warmed over..."  
  
She laughed as her father's old friend ruffled her hair in a paternal way that she found oddly comforting, considering the circumstances, "Ye should see the other bloke..."  
  
Roma's silvery voice called for their attention, Crusader X helping her sit as she had one more thing to add to all of this, her face pale and strained, but regaining some color as she looked from Liz to Meggan and the others, "You lot have fought long and hard, surviving much...but the ordeal is not quite over..there remains one final determination to be made..."  
  
She pointed to the Warpies and their kind, who looked fearfully at the violet-maned woman who'd once taken them into her home in an effort to protect them, Roma spoke again, "...their fate is in your hands..."  
  
Liz turned to Linda and Bran, raising a fine dark brow as she sought their thoughts, [Bran? Linda?]  
  
The big Amerind's eyes were as frigid a blue as the depths of the ocean, and they had all lost friends, other-selves and worse, his deep voice soft as he looked at her, trusting her to do the right thing, an arm slipping around Linda as he hid his face in her white hair, "Just get on with it, Liz...before I change m'mind and start seriously considering m'Lakota mother's ways!"  
  
Taking the sword from Roma, Liz looked at it, slipping into the "no-mind" state of the Tao, letting herself become the empty vessel tapping into the place deep within herself, that merged the Crimson Dawn, the Otherworld and the divine legacy, the crimson sigil flaring like a nova as she drew not a bastard sword, but a katana from the scabbard...that radiance washing over the Warpies and the fallen that lay scattered about the Starlight Citadel...  
  
Not the red of shed blood, but the softer red of the coming dawn, whose rosy light kissed the horizon...creating long, soothing shadows that cooled tempers and painful memories...the girl who'd been called "Fern" stared down, not at tendrils of proto-vegitative matter, but human hands, her voice trembling as she looked at those around her, "We....we're....human....?"  
  
Dumbstruck with disbelief at their good fortune, some fell to weeping, others to laughing or shouting with joy...and Liz felt arms and a warm weight suddenly bearing her down into the grass as Meggan hugged her tight, knowing that her sister-in-law really wasn't much on kids, but had given the...former...Warpies a second chance to get it right.  
  
"That's really some gift, Liz!" the empathic metamorph exclaimed as she hugged Liz tight, "Ye've given them a future...or at least a chance t'make a better place for 'emselves..."  
  
Some time later, Liz sat before a carved monument in Westminster Abbey, looking quietly at the plaques commemorating her brothers and her parents, all knights of the realm, whose ashes had been interred there for their service to the Isles. Meggan sat beside her, huddled in her arms, mourning the loss of a man who'd verbally abused her, taken advantage of her innocence and ignorance to force her into a mold that he thought fitted his needs...  
  
But the past few weeks had seen Meg grow up a lot more than she'd ever done in her life... Liz had refused to 'tell' her what to do, and forced her sister-in-law to confront her life, her choices and start dealing with life. Period.  
  
"It can't be any worse than you're imagining, y'know?" a lady's voice greeted her ears, its tone and accent that of a well educated, upper class Englishwoman.  
  
Liz shot a glance over her shoulder to see her elder sister, Tessa, approaching them, attired in a tasteful black power suit, face as composed as always, though her inhumanly blue eyes were shifting uncomfortably as she seemed uncertain of the welcome she'd recieve from her younger sibling, her own wit slipping out before she could stop it, referring to the apparent death she'd pulled after Valencia and Vargas, "What? Death?"  
  
"...or your assent to the throne of Otherworld," Tessa added drily as she laid small floral wreaths on the niches, "It would seem that by your actions, and those of Rogue and Vargas, the future history in the Libras Veritas has been rendered null and void...and I am out of a job...maybe I should take a vacation and learn more about Father's people and that side of my heritage?"  
  
Liz raised an eyebrow at her sister, an idear forming right then and there, "Well...if yer that interested in coming t'Otherworld, I've a need for a personal assistant...I'm told ye come with the best of recommendations..."  
  
Tessa stared at Liz, dumbstruck by the new Omniversal Majestrix's offer, "I...I don't know what to say, Elisabeth..."  
  
Meggan patted the older woman's shoulder, "Yer supposed to say "Yes, Liz, what a wonderful opportunity t'catch up and get aquainted..." Y'know?"  
  
The three women laughed together, the joyous sound somewhat unexpected by those visiting the crypts of Westminster, but those who glanced oddly at the trio of 'elven' looking women saw three women sharing memories of loved ones and the discovery of one another...  
  
They left the cathedral by a side door reserved for visiting nobility and royalty, and walking to the park across the street, they were greeted by Dane Whitman, the Black Knight, whom Liz embraced fondly...a thoughtful smile on her lips as she regarded the man, "Y'know, Dane, I'm thinking of a little project...founding a new Corps...sort of an 'interdimemsional' Knights of the Round Table...If ye can promise t'behave and not rile Bran and Linda, I should think' ye'd be a most welcome "Sir Lancelot"..."  
  
Dane grinned at her, doffing his helm as his hazel eyes met her violet gaze, "A most tempting offer...but..."  
  
"Think of it this way..." she pointed out, nodding to Branwynne--Talisman--who was now jogging toward them, as she'd spotted Dane, "How else are ye going t'court the lass?"  
  
He flushed a startling shade of garnet, wavy mahogany hair covering his face as he nearly choked at the knowing look on Liz's face, barely managing a sputter, "uh...er...ummmm...."  
  
Even Tessa cracked a smile as she joined in on the 'peer pressure', "Oy, listen, Whitman, if you're going to be that way, how ever will you woo her? Email is hardly convenient, nor is it interdimensional...and hardly romantic!"  
  
He turned at looked at Tessa, and then to Meggan, who was a sucker for "happily ever afters" in spite of how her first marriage had ended, coughing in an effort to remember how to breathe, "Don...Don't even start, Meg..."  
  
She fluttered her eyelashes at him before shifting into a gorgeous young man with ebon hair and those beryl green eyes, voice shifting to a smooth, velvet tenor, all innocence, "Who, me? I might just have to court her m'self...just to ensure that yer there t'do her justice!"  
  
Dane realized he couldn't 'beat' the Braddock women, so he might as well join them in Otherworld, and persue one Branwynne Braddock for himself... "A'right, a'ready...just twist my arm, why dontcha?"  
  
It was Branwynne herself, who playfully grabbed his hand and twisted his arm behind his back, ice blue eyes beaming in delight, "Oh, you'll not irk Bran too much...he does respect a man of learning and action such as yourself, Dane!"  
  
The group of them were an odd sight in a London park, but they attracted no more attention than the 'usual' motley mix of punks, yuppies and such...it was Dane whose hand tightened on the Ebon Blade's hilt at the approach of a lady who could've passed for another 'goth', with similar coloring to Liz that broke their good natured bantering...  
  
Dane let his lady take the reigns to Aragorn, stepping between the perceived threat of Morgaine Le Fay and the others, feeling a restraining hand on his shoulder, he glanced to see Liz shaking her violet head, "Easy, luv... m'grandmum's not here t'hassle ye...she's here t'meet up with Meg, Tessa and me..."  
  
The Black Knight was doing a more than credible imitation of a landed fish, his mouth agape, but no words coming forth at first, until he stammmered, "You...your....she's your grandmother?!"  
  
"Oh, and aye," Liz confirmed as her friend tried to regain his composure, slowly letting go of the hilt, straightening up a bit as they neared one another, "So do try t'mind yer manners...she and my cousin, Morrie have already promised t'be on their best behavior..."  
  
Her grandmother smiled at her, lavender eyes warming as she embraced Liz fondly, "Wellmet m'dear, I trust yer ready for this?"  
  
Liz nodded as she looked around at the group, summoning her newly endowed powers to shift them from London to the Starlight Citadel without breaking a sweat, "..I suppose, in some ways, I've been ready for this m'whole life..."  
  
That evening, in the restored great hall, the ruling caste of Otherworld, and the beginnings of her elite group of allies and her family, Elisabeth Falsworth-Braddock strode down the aisle, head held high with the same quiet confidence she'd always had, receiving the accolades and badges of office from Roma, she realised she'd come full circle... 


End file.
